A lawyer helping one of the soon-to-be displaced residents of the Shady Acres mobile home park in West Kelowna, B.C., believes recently issued eviction notices are not valid.
“The bylaw has not been adopted and the rezoning has not happened,” said Carl da Luz, a lawyer with Pihl Law Corporation.
The property is being rezoned to light industrial use and is displacing residents from about 30 homes.
While renters have already been forced out of the mobile home park, four owners remain, including George Sun, a refugee of the Cambodian genocide and on disability.
Da Luz felt compelled to help Sun after the developer, Kerr Properties, threatened to make Sun pay for his own demolition, citing unpermitted work in his home.
The lawyer argues that while third reading was passed by West Kelowna city council on Sept. 10, the rezoning bylaw needs final adoption before evictions can be triggered.
“It’s under the Manufactured Home Park Tenancy Act,” da Luz said.
The city stated that Kerr still has a few conditions to fulfil before the rezoning’s final adoption, including getting approvals from the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure and registering an environmental no-build/no-disturb covenant for the existing natural area located in the northeast corner of the property.
Da Luz said issuing the eviction notices prior to that final adoption is premature.
“Kerr has said that they believe that the approval in principle is sufficient,” da Luz said. “The law provides people like Mr. Sun with a certain degree of protection. I’d say it’s not appropriate to abbreviate that and say we’re close enough.”
The four owners who remain on site were served with 12-month eviction notices on Sept. 16.
“Very stressful and frightened and I feel like worrying and crying,” Sun said.
Kerr did not respond to Global News by the time of publication.
Da Luz said if Kerr Properties does not voluntarily rescind the eviction notice issued to his client, he will be challenging it through the residential tenancy branch and hopes the remaining owners do the same.
“Even if Mr. Sun can get into subsidizing housing eventually, that subsidized housing is going to be substantially more expensive than where he is living right now,” da Luz said. “So every month that he stays where he is is money in his pocket, it’s groceries, it’s a chance to save for the future.”